In the research proposed here, we hope to add to our knowledge of how children use different types of information to make psychological inferences. Specifically we will examine the following three questions: 1. What is the developmental course of children's ability to understand traits in a psychologically meaningful way? 2. How does information processing of social information compare to processing of information in other domains? 3. To what extent do children view traits as stable versus malleable and what aspects of parental input might contribute to such beliefs?